Method and apparatus for making hair curlers

ABSTRACT

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING HAIR CURLERS WHEREIN A STRIP OF PLASTIC OR PLASTIC COATED MATERIAL IS BENT BY PASSING BETWEEN THREE ROLLERS, OR THE LIKE, TO FORM A CIRCULAR HAIR CURLER SHAPE. THE DIAMETER OF THE HAIR CURLERS OR HAIR ROLLERS IS ADJUSTABLE BY ADJUSTMENTS OF THE SPACINGS OF THE ROLLERS. THE STRIP PASSES BETWEEN TWO ROLLERS AT ONE SIDE AND A THIRD ROLLER DISPOSED LINEARLY BETWEEN THE FIRST TWO ROLLERS AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STRIP. THE STRIP IS CUT BY A KNIFE MEANS OR BY A HOT WIRE MEANS. ONLY ONE OR MORE OF THE ROLLERS MAY BE POSITION-ADJUSTABLE. THE STRIP ENDS ARE JOINED BY HEAT-BONDING, AND MAY BE JOINED AT LAPPED OR BUTT JOINTS. THE STRIP IS CARRIED AS A ROLL, LIKE A ROLL OF ADDING MACHINE TAPE.

March 27, 1973 2. w. PRINCE ET AL 3,723,219

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING HAIR CURLERS Filed Nov. 18, 1970 Zoa'el/ W Prince Ade/ems L. Wombafore INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,723,219 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING HAIR CURLERS Zodell W. Prince, 601 Mulberry Lane, Bellaire, Tex. 77401; Dallas D. Weatherholt, 13207 Buxley 77045; and Adelene L. Tromhatore, 9725 Mariposa 77025, both of Houston, Tex.

Filed Nov. 18, 1970, Ser. No. 90,694 Int. Cl. B29d 23/10 US. Cl. 156-418 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Method and apparatus for making hair curlers wherein a strip of plastic or plastic coated material is bent by passing between three rollers, or the like, to form a circular hair curler shape. The diameter of the hair curlers or hair rollers is adjustable by adjustments of the spacings of the rollers. The strip passes between two rollers at one side and a third roller disposed linearly between the first two rollers at the other side of the strip. The strip is cut by a knife means or by a hot wire means. Only one or more of the rollers may be position-adjustable. The strip ends are joined by heat-bonding, and may be joined at lapped or butt joints. The strip is carried as a roll, like a roll of adding machine tape.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Hair curlers or hair rollers are conventionally purchased as commercial, pre-manufactured items, in the form of cylindrical tubes, usually having plural holes over their surfaces for ventilation. Such rollers are usually made of plastic. They may be reusable or disposable in nature. The rollers are supplied in a variety of sizes (diameters) and of a number of lengths. Surface designs of various natures are frequently provided to provide friction in handling and/or with the hair.

In the art, it has not been known or disclosed to provide methods or apparatus to enable the making of hair rollers, of whatever diameters or lengths are needed, as they are needed and in the quantities required. That is the principal object of this invention. The invention provides, additionally, that the rollers may be made at will in one or several diameters, as desired, of any desired length or lengths, from a length or roll of material, such as, for example, a strip of plastic of heat distendible nature, or from a strip of paper or the like which is coated with plastic or the like of heat distendible nature. In other words, the plastic is softened by heating and hardened by cooling, i.e. is thermoplastic, so that the rollers may be formed by heat treatments and are fairly rigid when cool. It is coutem plated also that other material may be used, e.g. materials that are softened or made bendable more or less permanently by gaseous or liquid solvent treatments.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the descriptions to follow, and from the drawings which are referred to in the descriptions. Although such are not shown in the drawings, the curlers may have surface designs and/or perforations therethrough over all or portions of their surfaces, for ventilation, for gripping and/ or for ornamentation, same being common in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, partly in vertical section, of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view, partly in vertical section, of the embodiment of FIG. 1, taken at line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3-4 are partial schematic views showing modifications of the invention, and especially showing means 3,723,219 Patented Mar. 27, 1973 DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings in detail, and describing the preferred embodiments of the invention shown therein, and referring first to FIGS. 1-2 of the drawings a flat plate or base 10 supports an electric drive motor 11, and a wall-like support 12 which supports three triangularly disposed rollers 14, 15, and 16. Base 10 also supports a cutter head 17 and a strip reel or roll 20. Strip reel or roll 20 is supported on a roller 21.

A cover 22 is downwardly hollow, and has rib 24 internally therearound which rests on base 10. The cover is angular at 25, and has higher upper surface 27 and lower upper surface 28 at opposite sides of angular surface 25. The side walls are vertical, and terminate outwardly of the sides of base 10, below rib 24.

Rollers 14, 15, 16 and 21 are supported by wall 12. Rollers 14, 15 are shown to be stationary. Roller 16 is movable, and if desired rollers 14, 15 may be similarly movably mounted. Roller 16 has a shaft 30 having enlargement 31, the shank 32 of which is threaded to receive nut 34. Shank 32 passes through a slot 37 through wall 12, and is movable to positions along the length of the slot. Movement of shaft 30 in slot 37 changes the bending of the strip 41, from roll or reel 20 of plastic or plasticcoated material. That is, if roller 16 is lowered the bending radius of the strip is made smaller, while if the roller 16 is raised the bending radius of the strip is made larger. As has been stated, all rollers may be movable, and the changing of the position of any roller will affect the bending radius of the strip 41.

Any or all of the rollers 14-16 may be driven in rotation. In the preferred embodiment shown, only roller 14 is driven, and rollers 15, 16 are rotated by friction between roller 14, the strip 41, and rollers 15, 16. Roller 21 is rotated by pulling of the strip by the roller 14 drive, but may obviously be separately driven in rotation at the desired rotational speed if desired.

Roller 14 is shown to be rotated by drive motor 11, belt 44, and drive sheave 45 mounted on the shaft of roller 14. The rotation of the shaft is, of course, counter clockwise as the roller is shown in FIG. 1.

Strip 41 is shown in FIG. 1 to be bent to the same curvature as the outside of roller 16. This is the minimum radius of curvature of the strip. If roller 16 is lowered, the strip will still conform to the curvature of roller 16. If, however, roller 16 is raised in slot 37, the strip curvature will be reduced, i.e. be of increased radius, so that strip 41 will curve outside of the radius of roller 16.

In FIGS. l-2, the cutter consists of cutter head 17, which has a crosswise V-slot 49, a knife 50, carried at the lower end of a shaft 51. The shaft has lower end enlargement 53 and extends therefrom upwardly through a cover wall opening through wall 25, and is threaded at its upper end. A push button 55 is screwed onto shaft 51. Wall 25 has cylindrical angularly upstanding wall 58 around the pushbutton, and a compression spring 59 is disposed between wall 25 and push button 55. Spring 59 biases the push button outwardly, but yields to permit shaft 51 to move knife 50 to be depressed to cut strip 41 against cutter head 17. This is done when the end of strip 41 has passed around roller 16, and the ends of cut-off strip 41 are sealed together by an electric heater 62 disposed between rollers 14, 15. The finished roller is removed through window opening 65 through the adjacent sidewall of cover 22, the finished roller being removed being indicated by reference number 41a in FIG. 2. After cutting of the strip, the new strip end is fed to between rollers 15, 16 to commence making and sealing together of the ends of an additional hair roller. This is done through window opening 65.

Referring to FIGS. 3-4, the rollers 14-16 are shown spaced ditferently than in FIGS. 1-2. Relatively narrower roller spacing as in FIG. 3 although greater spacing than in FIG. 1, gives a hair roller 41a of diameter greater than in FIG. 1 but of lesser diameter than in FIG. 4, and relatively greater spacing in FIG. 4 gives a still greater radius to the bent strip 41 and product 41a. Therefore, different radius curlers may be made by diverse spacings of the rollers.

In FIG. 3, there is indicated a cutter different than the cutter shown in FIGS. l-2. The cutter consists of a crosswisely disposed hot wire 71 carried by lever 72 movable in cover slot 73 to position 72a, wherein it cuts the strip 41. The cutting may be done whereby the roller is buttfused or is lap-fused, to form a cylinder-form for the finished hair roller.

The rollers 14, 15, 16 may be heated rollers, to assist in the shaping of the hair rollers from strip 41. Supplemental heaters may be positioned to heat the strip where appropriate or necessary.

It will be apparent from the disclosure that the invention affords means and methods for forming hair curlers or roller, of desired length and diameter, on a one by one or plural basis, these being from a strip of material supplied in the form of a roll similar to a roll of paper adding machine tape. The lengths of the rollers formed may be adjusted by adjusting the width of strip 41.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described and shown in the drawings, many modifications thereof may be made by a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to protect by Letters Patent all forms all the invention falling within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. Method for making tubular hair curlers, comprising feeding a strip of paper coated with thermoplastic material between rollers to form the end of the strip into a circle,

cutting the strip at the end of the circle, and bonding the strip ends together to form a tubular hair curler, there being three said rollers, two spaced rollers being at one side of said strip and one roller being therebetween at the other side of said strip, the roller spacings determining the radius of said tubular curler, the ends of said tubular curler being heat-bonded together against said one roller while still disposed therearound.

2. Apparatus for forming tubular hair curlers from a strip of paper coated with thermoplastic material, comprising three rollers for forming the end of said strip into a circle, two spaced rollers being at one side of said strip and one roller being therebetween at the other side of said strip, means for cutting said strip at the end of said circle, and heating means for bonding the ends of said cut-off strip end together against said one roller while still disposed therearound to form a tubular hair curler.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, said cutting means comprising knife means.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, said cutting means comprising hot wire means.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2, at least one of said rollers being movable to change the curvature of said strip to form a tubular hair curler of different size.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,279,229 10/1966 Lagher 72170 2,797,843 7/1957 Orlins 1562l8 X 3,528,876 9/1970 Von Clave Bouhaben et al.

156-218 X 3,384,527 5/1968 Fener 156515 X 3,134,005 5/1964 Mayhew 156515 X 3,083,757 4/1963 Kraft et al. 156-515 2,925,021 2/1960 Basta 156218 X 3,008,475 11/1961 Solomon 161-DIG. 6 2,384,462 9/1945 Goodman 138128 X RALPH HUSACK, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

